While digital innovations have revolutionized how people interact with the online world, the proliferation of new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and voice-based applications, as well as communications technology, has had unintended consequences for professionals with disabilities.
The technology’s impact on people with speech and language disabilities is of immediate concern when it comes to the continued integration of voice-based software tools. Voice recognition programs, along with automated chat boxes, helplines, and hands-free programs and web applications, for example, are often exclusionary, as with many other aspects of digital life.
Digital ecosystems—including websites, apps, AI tools, and associated programs—need to be designed with everyone in mind. A lack of inclusive web principles not only limits your ability to reach as many customers as possible, but also gives the impression that you’re uninterested in accessibility best practices.
Not only is this bad business, but, more importantly, it disregards the moral imperative to design systems so that all people can enjoy the benefits of online experiences—regardless of whether they live with blindness or low-vision, deafness or are hard of hearing, physical disabilities, mental health challenges, speech and language disorders, learning and cognitive disabilities, or any other disability.
Key Takeaways
In business terms, prioritizing accessibility expands your user base and market reach. It also helps your organization meet its moral responsibility to ensure everybody has access to fully participate in society, including the marketplace and suite of products and services that improve people’s lives.
This means centering accessibility during AI development, which has exploded during the past two years.
AI is growing at lightning speed, and unless companies build accessibility into the earliest stages of development, then roughly 1.3 billion people globally living with disabilities will be left behind.
Accessibility can’t be an afterthought.
An afterthought approach to accessibility is already experienced by those using assistive technology. Barriers to voice recognition and screen reader optimization are two examples.
“AI-powered tools often struggle with voice recognition accuracy for users with non-standard voice patterns, which are variations that can affect how readily others can understand someone,” explains Shlomit Shteyer, Director of Technical Program Management at Salesforce, a cloud-based AI CRM company. “Conditions like speech impediments, neurological disorders, or age-related changes can all affect someone's pattern of speech.”
When tech companies discover accessibility issues later in the AI development process, projects are delayed, while large segments of the population are excluded.
“Most organizations realize they have accessibility issues during the testing phase or even after shipping, largely due to the fast-paced development cycle for AI tools,” she continues. “Identifying these issues late in the cycle can be costly in terms of time and resources, as it often requires significant rework and additional testing to address the problems.”
This not only raises AI development costs, but also harms your relationships with current customers who have speech and language difficulties and prevents you from reaching new ones.
“This delay can negatively impact user experience, particularly for individuals relying on assistive technologies, leading to frustration and reduced trust in the product,” she says. “As with any development process, identifying and addressing accessibility issues early is more cost-effective and ensures a more inclusive and user-friendly final product.”
Whether developing digital products or designing a website, you should conduct accessibility testing; your designers and programmers should be trained in inclusive design principles.
When designing a website or creating digital software or applications, inclusive design principles should always take center stage—which means avoiding features that exclusively rely on voice input. While voice input (speaking to a smart speaker, for example) can be convenient to some, you should also provide alternative methods of interaction for people to ensure people with speech and learning disabilities can communicate effectively.
For example, companies and websites utilizing telephone communication as the only means of directly interacting with an organization can impose unfair barriers on those who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally.
The best way to help mitigate these obstacles is to provide alternative interaction and engagement options to voice inputs. Incorporating these elements can make a significant difference in overall engagement and accessibility, especially for people with speech and language disorders.
Typically, those with speech difficulties feel more comfortable with text-based services and applications, such as chat, e-mail, and feedback forms.
If verbal communication is required, those with severe speech difficulties can turn to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) methods. AACs comprise several communication methods that those with speech and language disorders can use to supplement or replace vocal communication.
One example is a Speech to Speech Relay Service, which enables those with speech difficulties to make a telephone call using their own voice, or an assistive voice device. These services use Communication Assistants to translate and relay messages between people.
Speech recognition software enables phones, computers, tablets, and other devices to recognize and analyze spoken words, often using language as input to trigger a specific action. People with speech impairments can have difficulty using this technology, however, and while voice recognition software is improving, it can still present barriers for those who can’t express themselves verbally.
One near universal aspect of most websites is the ability to navigate pages with a keyboard. If you want to start incorporating voice-based tools, it’s important to include alternative navigation options so you don’t exclude people with speech and language disorders.
For people who feel more comfortable communicating through text, word prediction software is useful for anticipating what a person is trying to type, reducing the number of keystrokes necessary for typing words.
Ensuring a more inclusive digital space will make your site and content more accessible and, as a result, will make your website more welcoming.
While there aren’t many accessibility guidelines that specifically address speech and language disorders, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a valuable resource for maximizing usability for people with a variety of disabilities.
Additionally, the international standards organization World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is considering ensuring audio content has a text alternative.
Considering the needs of all groups, including people with speech and language disorders, will go a long way toward improving their user experience, and helping them feel more comfortable communicating and engaging in your digital spaces.
A founding partner of InclusionHub, Salesforce is helping bring greater accessibility and digital inclusion to the professional world. Visit its a11y website to learn more.